


stroke of midnight

by jjokkiri



Series: #kihobingo 2017 [1]
Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Cinderella Elements, Fluff, KiHo Bingo, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-09 16:30:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11108436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jjokkiri/pseuds/jjokkiri
Summary: Because every second Kihyun spends with Hoseok is magical.





	stroke of midnight

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the _Disney_ square of [#kihobingo](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/kihobingo)!

“Do you remember the first time you met me?” Kihyun asked, softly. Standing on the balcony and letting the wind card through his dark brown locks of hair, Kihyun’s forearms rested on the rail of the balcony as he inhaled the fresh air, staring down at the open garden where everyone was moving slowly to rhythm under the seemingly floating fairy lights. It was a magical sight, like something out of a fairy tale (and when he turned his head to the left, he could scan Hoseok’s gentle features and simply think: _this was more magical of a sight_ ).

Everyone thought that attending royal balls was the most magical time of the year, and they couldn’t help but wish that it happened more often. It was the one day in the year when everyone was treated as equals and they could mingle with everyone else, dressed up beautifully in elegant clothing that they’d never be able to wear on other occasions. Kihyun too wished that something like this could happen more often—but all for different reasons. He didn’t share the wish to have a single day in the year where he could dress up and blend in with everyone—it was a little different. Kihyun simply wanted the single day that all the rivalries between the royal families were forgotten, simply so that he could spend the entire night by Hoseok’s side.

They met by chance, just a few summers ago, when Kihyun was nineteen and thinking that he was on top of the world. He was the son of a Duke and Duchess who were greatly favoured by the king, and it gave him the chance to have almost anything he wanted. He’d met Hoseok by the snack tables near the ballroom and his heart stopped when he raised his eyes to meet with dark, warm eyes and a mischievous smile (and he later learned that Hoseok wasn’t only beautiful on the outside).

And simply because Kihyun had the best of luck, Shin Hoseok had to be the son of the duke his mother hated most—there was a rivalry between their families, as his love story had to play out. He didn’t remember signing up to play in some Romeo and Juliet bullshit, but they had to be as they were. _Tragically_. In simple words, what it meant was that they couldn’t be with one another frequently. After all, there was only a limited amount of times that Kihyun could make the excuse that he wanted to go out into town with his father and pretend to get lost somewhere in the crowd, only to find his way to meet up with Hoseok and wander home, much later. To Kihyun, all it meant was that they needed to spend the entire night together, when they finally got to see one another.

Hoseok didn’t mind his decision. It wasn’t like Hoseok wanted to spend his time with anyone else, after all. For the entire night, their attention was on one another, and that was all they’d focus on—because at the stroke of midnight, they’d have to fall away from one another’s arms and wait until the next moment they could escape back.

Five years after their very first meeting, Kihyun stood on the balcony of the palace, looking down at the courtyard which looked identical to the first time he’d stood there at nineteen years of age. At twenty-four years of age, Kihyun stood on the elevated platform, looking down at the dancing figures hand-in-hand with the man he loved with everything he had. Everything was the same as it was five years ago, when they first met—everything aside from the fact that they were no longer strangers.

“Yes, how could I forget? You were such a brat,” Hoseok replied with a smirk on his lips, amused with his own response to Kihyun’s question. The brunet immediately frowned and hit his shoulder, brows furrowed in disdain. Hoseok grinned, continuing, “I stopped you from yelling at one of the unattended kids who were taking snacks from the table without asking an adult, first.”

“And what happened after that?” Kihyun prompted, tauntingly. Hoseok smiled, turning to look at Kihyun in the eyes. He was quiet for a moment and then the smile grew.

“And then, I fell in love with you.”

His heart fluttered immediately at the sound of the words—no matter how many times Hoseok said it, it never ceased to have the same effect on him. Every single time was like the first, and he swore that this was true love. Kihyun knew little of romance, because all he’d ever known was storybooks, before his heart bloomed with emotion upon the very first meeting with Hoseok—from that moment, surely, he knew exactly what love was. It was unfortunate that there were complications in the way of their love, but there was nothing in the world that could stop them from loving one another as purely as they did.

Kihyun, as the son of a Duke, found himself reading books in all the moments he’d spent in leisure before he’d met Hoseok (now, he spent his leisure time writing poems about the way Hoseok never failed to look beautiful to him). And out of all the stories he’d ever read, he swore that he couldn’t find a love as pure as theirs. Perhaps, he was delusional and a little too biased in love, but he insisted—despite, he was too shy to tell it to Hoseok, directly.

“What happened after you fell in love with me?” Kihyun pressed, playfully. Hoseok squeezed his hand and chuckled softly.

“I think after I fell in love with you, you fell in love with me,” Hoseok replied. Kihyun rolled his eyes at him and shook his head.

“We’ve been over this,” Kihyun told him, his pretty mouth threatening to curve into a pout. Hoseok only smiled at him, as if he’d been anticipating the exact reaction. “I swear I fell in love with you before you fell in love with me.”

“Hmm,” the older man obviously disagreed, but he said nothing, as if letting Kihyun take the victory of the challenge his words implied. “I suppose so… so then, tell me, my love: what happened after I fell in love with you?”

Kihyun laughed softly, shaking his head, “I was just asking to see if you knew,” he said. “I think I lost track of time right after I fell in love with you, so I don’t know what comes before or after—all I know is that I always want to see you.”

Hoseok’s lips curled into a smile—it never seemed to fade as he studied Kihyun’s face. “You’re perfect,” he whispered. Kihyun’s cheeks flushed with colour and he averted his eyes from the older man, suddenly shy at the remark. He was used to hearing the words, but like Hoseok telling him that he loved him, it still made his heart flutter.

“That’s you,” the brunet answered without missing a beat; not batting an eyelash.

Hoseok clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth in disapproval; he pulled his hand from Kihyun’s and then he was pushing back a couple strands of hair which had fallen into Kihyun’s eyes. His hand stayed lingering in front of Kihyun’s eyes for a brief moment, before he dropped it and looked at him with _warm eyes_.

And for a moment, all they could do was stare into one another’s eyes. Surely, they’d regret not talking more in the morning, when they were unable to stand in front of one another and converse, but in the moment, the silence was the most comfortable thing in the world. Simply being in the presence of one another always carried that comfort that they both loved—it’s why Kihyun firmly believed in their love. And it’s Kihyun who broke the silence and the lingering eye contact.

“I wish we could always be together like this,” Kihyun sighed, leaning against the balcony and ignoring the way his expensive suit wrinkled under his posture.

“You have no idea how much I do, too,” Hoseok told him, reaching a hand over to straighten out the back of Kihyun’s suit jacket. “You ruin your outfits every single time you’re with me. I’m starting to think that it’s a bad thing for you to see me—I feel bad for your tailor.”

“He won’t mind,” Kihyun replied, quickly. And for a moment, sadness flashed across his eyes—it’s because he didn’t see Hoseok very often. Hoseok seemed to catch onto it quickly, and he cleared his throat, quickly changing the topic. It was the one night in the year that they could spend all the time with one another before the stroke of midnight. They shouldn’t be speaking of sadder things—that was saved for the times when they snuck out of their homes to meet one another at a cliffside on some night where the sky was star-studded and glimmering at them.

“A peasant attends a ball and falls in love with the prince, and miraculously, they end up married and live happily ever after,” Hoseok started, lips pursed into a small frown. With curious eyes, Kihyun turned to look at him. Hoseok was suddenly behind him (Kihyun hadn’t heard him moving at all). Strong arms wrapped themselves around the younger man’s waist from behind, and Hoseok rested his chin atop Kihyun’s shoulder. “All because of a glass slipper that, somehow, didn’t fit on the foot of any single person in this kingdom.”

Kihyun sighed, again. Hoseok chuckled in response to the sound of the exasperated sigh leaving his lover’s lips. He turned his head and pressed his lips softly into the younger man’s hair, inhaling quietly. Kihyun looked up at him, finally finding his words again.

“That’s our Queen, now,” he replied, quietly. “That peasant with the strangely small feet, who managed to get the prince to miraculously fall in love with her.”

Hoseok nodded, “And so, tell me, why can’t _we_ have a magical love story, too? Defy our parents and be together kind of thing?”

Kihyun immediately rolled his eyes at him, and Hoseok’s lips curved into a mischievous smile—secretly, he really wanted it, but they both knew that they really shouldn’t. _Really couldn’t_. They weren’t allowed to be so selfish—they were meant to be raised with better manners than that.

“Tell me that our love story won’t have anything to do with feet, and I think I’m sort of all for the idea,” Kihyun replied, lips curved into a smile—playful, with twinkling eyes. Hoseok grinned and carded slender fingers through his hair with a soft laugh.

“I don’t think that our love story can sound very much like a fairy tale, if we don’t have something strangely magical.”

“You know what we have that _is_ magical?”

Hoseok looked at him with curious eyes, “We have something magical?”

Kihyun’s smile was sweet and it blossomed into something brighter when Hoseok softly inquired. His hands raised to cup Hoseok’s cheeks and he stepped onto the tips of his toes, pressing their foreheads together with a soft exhale. Pleasant surprise crossed Hoseok’s expression and he raised an eyebrow as Kihyun’s forehead knocked gently against his. It was instinctive for his hands to fall onto the younger man’s waist, carefully holding him.

“Yeah,” he breathed, nodding his head and looking into Hoseok’s eyes with sincerity. His heart pounded in his chest, loud yet somehow comforting. “ _You_. We have you. You make every moment feel magical to me, and honestly, that’s enough for me.”

Kihyun swore that in that moment, Hoseok’s smile was brighter than all of the stars in the sky and all the lights beneath them; that nothing could beat the beauty in that. Simply, because Hoseok was the most beautiful thing that Kihyun’s ever laid his eyes on.

(And when the clock struck midnight, chiming loudly and telling them: _times up_ , they’re hesitant to let one another go. So, with quiet promises, they’d keep in touch—send letters and anticipate the next moment that they could see one another again.)

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments are always appreciated and treasured with love.
> 
> as always, find me on twitter @kkyunjus! and a quick note that #kihobingo sign-ups do not have an official close date, so you're welcome to join us anytime before the end of the event!!


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